May 5, 2005: Headlines: COS - Antigua: Sports: Tennis: Springfield State Journal Register: MacMurray College men's tennis team is banned from outside competition for two years after Antigua RPCV Neal Hart arranged a scholarship fund for international student-athletes. Hart said he helped bring in students from Argentina, Ghana and Kenya among other countries. "We didn't do anything wrong, and I would do it again in a minute if I can help kids"

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May 5, 2005: Headlines: COS - Antigua: Sports: Tennis: Springfield State Journal Register: MacMurray College men's tennis team is banned from outside competition for two years after Antigua RPCV Neal Hart arranged a scholarship fund for international student-athletes. Hart said he helped bring in students from Argentina, Ghana and Kenya among other countries. "We didn't do anything wrong, and I would do it again in a minute if I can help kids"

MacMurray College men's tennis team is banned from outside competition for two years after Antigua RPCV Neal Hart arranged a scholarship fund for international student-athletes. Hart said he helped bring in students from Argentina, Ghana and Kenya among other countries. "We didn't do anything wrong, and I would do it again in a minute if I can help kids"

It's game, set and match for Mac men's tennis team Highlanders get only second ‘death penalty’ in history of the NCAA

By BUFORD GREEN STAFF WRITER

JACKSONVILLE - MacMurray College has been hit with a rare "death penalty'' by the National Collegiate Athletic Association for alleged improprieties in its men's tennis program.

The NCAA Division III Committee on Infractions announced Wednesday that the school's men's tennis team is banned from outside competition for two years for providing impermissible financial aid to international student-athletes over a four-year period. The college also was placed on probation until May 3, 2009.

According to Kent Barrett, associate director of public and media relations for the NCAA, this is the first NCAA Division III case for the so-called death penalty and only the second in NCAA history. The other one was for the Southern Methodist football program in 1987.

The NCAA, through Gerald Young, Division III Committee on Infractions chairman and associate athletics director at Carleton College, said MacMurray will be prohibited from participating in any men's tennis competition through the 2006-07 academic years. The team also will be banned from postseason competition for the 2007-08 and 2008-09 academic years.

The case involves the team's former head coach, Neal Hart, arranging with his father (the late A.C. Hart of Arenzville) a scholarship fund for international student-athletes. Over four years, 10 tennis student-athletes were awarded more than $162,000 from the fund and direct payments to their accounts by A.C. Hart, according to the NCAA. Only men's tennis student-athletes received the funds, according to a news release.

Neal Hart was asked to resign early last spring but remains chairman of the math department at MacMurray.

MacMurray athletic director Bob Gay self-reported the possible violations in early 2004 and Hart appeared before the NCAA committee two months ago. Gay resigned in January of this year after 34 years at the school. Men's basketball coach Darrin DeNeve has been acting A.D. in the interim, with Kevin Haslam hired as the new A.D. last week.

"While he (Hart) no doubt had a sincere desire to help the young men, the committee noted that all of the 10 individuals assisted competed for the team he coached,'' the NCAA report said.

The report also said that committee found "a lack of institutional control'' at the school due to the former athletic director not distributing NCAA policies and recruiting information to coaches in an inadequate manner.

"The committee is troubled by the former head coach's dismissive attitude toward NCAA rules. At one point in the hearing he referred to the rules as a 'joke,' and during the discussion referred to the violations as 'casual sorts of things,' '' the report said.

"The coach was a big-hearted man he felt he was doing the best for the students in general, and he had the means. However, this was a blatant violation of NCAA rules,'' Young said during a conference call.

MacMurray had to forfeit the one match it played in early 2004, and the team disbanded the remainder of last year and this season.

MacMurray President Lawrence Bryan, said in a statement Wednesday that the school will comply in full with the sanctions.

"The NCAA adjudicated a fair hearing with an impartial panel,'' he said. "As an institution, we were right and ethical to report this infraction to the NCAA. We regard the committee's overall assessment as accurate and the sanctions appropriate. We will willingly comply with the penalties and have a plan in place to implement the NCAA's recommendations for staff education to prevent future infractions. The college looks forward to resuming its intercollegiate men's tennis schedule in 2007.''

Neal Hart, who said he was asked to take the open coaching spot in 2000, said Wednesday he disagrees with the sanctions and what he feels were "attacks on his character.''

"I will definitely appeal,'' said Hart, 67, who is a former Peace Corps volunteer and previously was an international student adviser at Sam Houston State.

"We (Hart and his father, who died at the age of 101 in July 2004) weren't helping the students as tennis players. The first ones here got a raw deal from headhunters (groups that bring athletes to the United States with the promise of helping them get athletic scholarships) and they went home with nothing.

"Dad liked to fund a lot of things and I asked if he would fund the kids and he agreed. Dad was trying to help them as students. He and I had nothing devious in mind. In fact, he did so many things in many places, especially Illinois College. This was my idea, but he had the money.''

Hart said he helped bring in students from Argentina, Ghana and Kenya among other countries.

"We didn't do anything wrong, and I would do it again in a minute if I can help kids,'' Hart said. "I'm not going out to recruit athletes.''

MacMurray, a private college of less than 700 students, offers eight men's sports and seven for women. The school's probation began Tuesday.

Buford Green can be reached at 245-6023 or buford.green@sj-r.com.

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Story Source: Springfield State Journal Register

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